This year the Freeze family hosted the annual get together on Wednesday using the Keos property for the following reasons. 1). They were unsure who all would attend if they hosted it at their house in the province. 2). The Keos property is the most spacious out of everyone in Phnom Penh at this point. The Keos have been very generous with their property seeing as we've had the Fourth at their house before and also the
Pressing Forward Bible Conference in May.
This year was a bit different than the other years. For starters, the Freezes asked anyone who has (and can play) an instrument to bring it if they so desire to play along with the piano for congregational singing. There ended up being one piano, two trumpets, one trombone, two cellos, two violins, one viola, and two flutes. My dad was at the piano, my older sister on the violin, and I was playing the flute. I'm not sure what my ratio ended up being as far as notes hit to notes completely missing the mark! :) I tried though. It sounded pretty good for us not having practiced beforehand though. :P
This year there were no competitions either. I think that was kind of nice in a way, so no one would stress over getting their drawing and/or painting just right, worrying over a pie crust, or making sure they had the best costume. The different competitions have been a big deal in the past though! I'm not exactly sure what years these are from, but here is the pie baking, art, costume, and hat competitions.
One other difference I noticed is that there were no sparklers. I was informed that they were forgotten among the chaos of other preparations. I've always mentally connected sparklers to this American holiday without even thinking. It's just always been a thing. Turns out...one
can survive if a tradition is accidentally overlooked one year! :P I kept asking myself, "
Why are sparklers so fun?" It's just a stick we light on fire and wave around in the air a few times until it burns out. It's basically a match!! (This is also an old picture.)
We left the house armed with hot dogs and sausages for the grill, tortillas, a pasta side dish, and cookie bars. Dad also loaded up some things to play games and we stopped by the store to get candy bars for prizes. We got there last which was perfect timing because everyone else's meat was just getting off the barbecue, so we put ours right on. :)
There was a super cool thingy resembling a small inflatable pool on the table. Mrs. Freeze's mother I believe sent it to her for such occasions. She filled it with ice, then we put the side dishes on top (as pictured below). Things like the watermelon and potato salad stayed cool. Super creative! Congrats to whoever's brain this idea originally emerged from!
All of the desserts were really good particularly Kimberlee Keo's lemon cookies. So moist and delicious! Of course we returned home with an empty cookie bar dish. :) Perhaps the most popular dessert though was the Krispy Kreme donuts the Woods and Freezes brought. I for one don't care for donuts, but everyone else was going nuts for them! Stuff like that will get you voted for "favorite missionary" in no time! Just kidding. I could tell everyone really enjoyed them though.
After a leisurely lunch filled with fellowship, everyone slowly started trickling into the building for a brief service. The service was brief -alternating between singing, specials, and testimonies- and to the point. The orchestra was composed of ten people and six different instruments (not including piano). The first row was blessed with the music stand. Everyone else had to tape clothespins to the back of the chairs in front of them to clip the music. :P
There were two specials during the service as well. The Freezes played "America the Beautiful" with Bro. Freeze on the trombone, Luke on the piano, Elizabeth on the flute, and Hezekiah (Kie) on the violin. It was really nice. I've known the Freezes my whole life and consider the kids as cousins.
The other special was by Mrs. Johnson and her two kids (Jonathan and Nancilynn). They played a medley of "Brethen, We Have Met to Worship" and "Pass Me Not". Nancilynn played the violin, Jonathan the cello, and Mrs. Johnson the viola. It was very beautiful. :)
Once the service was over my dad brought out two beach balls for a game. The first game was.. how many times can you bounce a beach ball on your head? We split up into several categories (younger girls, older girls, younger boys, etc.). The men and women even played! The average person didn't make it past five. A smaller percentage made it to ten or higher. Very few people got past twenty. People were slowly eliminated as we played, soon leaving only the three top scorers. The battle for a Snickers or Twix candy bar was on!!! I don't remember who the first person up was or how many they got, but the second person was one of the teen boys. He made it past 30 and everyone was expecting him to win! Until Bro. Freeze stepped up for his turn. 15....30...50...60...70...90...on and on he went!! Everyone was counting off the number of bounces as it climbed higher and higher! I didn't know if he would ever stop! He
finally missed number 108 and the whole place erupted in cheers and applause!!
Dad also organized a few relay races outside. Has anyone ever played a relay race with a plunger? :) The game was just balancing a ball on a plunger and running to the mark and back. It was pretty windy that day, so that was an extra challenge. There were varying sizes of balls, the smallest being a marble. That's why it looks like Jonathan Keo (in the last picture) has nothing. :) He actually has the marble and is doing his best!
People lingered for quite a while after that, but not as late as our missionary gatherings usually go. :) We ended up getting home around 8 p.m. We had a really fun time and are thankful for the different families involvement (mainly the Freezes though) to make it a memorable day! I will never forget Bro. Freeze bouncing the ball on his head 107 times! :) Also, thanks to Bro. Nathan Waldock for the great pictures he took and shared with me!
Here are some random shots starting with our hosts, the Freezes!!
Thanks for reading; post a comment if you'd like; and vote whether you think this post was funny, interesting, or cool! Have a great day!
